and forget that for every individual that has been truly converted to God, and found mercy on a death bed, there have been thousands, it is to be feared, who having lived without God, have been left to die without hope.

The parable of the labourers in the vineyard, has been wrested to a similar bad purpose; and unlearned and unstable people have argued from it, that it makes no difference whatever, whether a person receives the Gospel early or late in life, and gives to God many years or only a few hours of his existence, because those labourers who were called at the eleventh hour, and only did a little work in the vineyard, were paid just the same as the rest, who had been at work all day. It may be doubted whether this parable has any reference whatever to conversion and the reward of eternal life; but if it has, it should be remembered, that the eleventh hour labourers had an excuse which none of us have, viz. "No man hath hired us;" and therefore, if they obtained the reward, it does not follow that those who every Sunday of their lives are bid to come into the vineyard, and will not go till driven by sickness or old age, will be dealt with as mercifully and graciously as they were.

Some people argue from Matt. xxv. 34-46. that charity to the poor, and relieving the wants of the distressed, will cover sin, and pave a way to heaven. Yet the apostle tells us, 1 Cor. xiii. 3. that a man may give all his goods to feed the poor, and yet be nothing profited. We see, then, how not only the things hard to be understood in Scripture are wrested by the unlearned and unstable, but even the plainest and simplest things, about which one should imagine there would be no

mistake, and over which it seems scarcely possible for any one to stumble. So we pass on to consider,

The end of the persons referred to in our text: "Which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest to their own destruction." Destruction is the end of all those who dare to trifle with God's holy word, and to pervert and abuse its faithful and true sayings. So we find that those who read not, and many of those who do read the Bible, are involved in the same condemnation. And indeed it is very reasonable to expect, that the traveller who, after reading the words on the directing post, takes the road to the left, when it told him to take the one to the right, will wander as wide of his mark, and fall as short of the place of destination, as he who does not read them at all.

III. Let us now make A FEW PRACTICAL REMARKS connected with the subject.

First. Whatever may be the hard things of Scripture, the main things for us to receive and believe are written therein as with a sunbeam. For instance,

The guilty and condemned condition of man by nature is very plainly set forth. David says, "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." It is written again, "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God." These passages, and a thousand others to the same effect, which might be produced, are not hard to be understood. Their meaning is obvious; and it is this-that every child that comes into the world, comes into it with a corrupt and depraved nature, and is consequently from its very birth under the curse and condemnation of Almighty God. And when children grow up and

become men and women, the corruption of their nature shows itself by wicked thoughts, words, and works, and they are worse by practice than they were by birth. Again, another thing is plainly set forth,

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That there is one way, and but one way of salvation for guilty and condemned sinners. I am the way," said our Lord Jesus Christ, cometh to the Father but by me." This again is not hard to be understood. A person who desires salvation from his natural state of guilt and condemnation, must go to Jesus Christ to obtain it. He is sure of it, if he asks Him for it humbly, and earnestly, and faithfully; but he must be content to live and die cursed and condemned, if either he is too lazy or proud to ask at all, or too careless to ask in the right way. There is another thing plainly set forth in scripture,

That God is not willing that any should perish. "As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth." And if, as many seem to think, God wishes only a few to be saved, and many to be lost, He surely would not have given Jesus Christ His Son to suffer and to die. If a person on shore were to send out a life boat to a vessel foundering at sea, and offered to take in any that chose to come, nobody would believe that that person desired the death of any of the poor drowning wretches on board. One thing more is plainly set forth in Scripture,

That though God is not willing that any should perish, many will, notwithstanding, perish. "Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be that go in thereat." The way to heaven is plain; God is very desirous

that people should walk therein; but the multitude is following the other road, rejecting the one and only Saviour, and provoking God to cast them off for ever.

This

Secondly. God intended that we should know all that is revealed in Scripture, and no more. observation applies to two classes of persons:

To those who are very ignorant of the Bible, and are contented to remain so. I do not say, but that many very ignorant people have gone to heaven, nor that the knowledge which is just sufficient to make wise unto salvation is not sometimes acquired in a very short time, and with very little trouble. But I mean that God is not pleased with ignorance; He does not want to keep people in the dark, and does not like to see them so. We should try and learn all we can about good things on this side the grave; for there will be more than enough for us to learn, if by the mercy of God, through Jesus Christ, we ever get to heaven. A Christian's ignorance, though it may not deprive him altogether of happiness, cannot add to his happiness. Yet I am afraid there are many, in whom perhaps is the root of the matter, who have opportunities and abilities too for increasing in wisdom and knowledge every day, and yet suffer their gardens to lie waste, seldom troubling themselves about cultivating and improving them. This should not be. It is not for the honour of Godit is not for their own welfare that it should be so. The knowledge of God is a wonderful and excellent knowledge, and we cannot know Him too well. He has told us in His word all He wishes us to know of Him now, and He expects that what good men, inspired by Him, have taken the trouble

to write, we should take the trouble to read. The observation I have made applies also

be

To those who would fain be wise above and beyond what is written. There always have been, and there still are, such persons in the world. They seem to think, that God has left out of the Bible many things which He ought to have put in, and not told them some things, which it would be better for them if He had. This is great presumption, to say the least of it. We may very sure of this-that God has told us all that it is necessary for us to know-and that, if He saw that more information on any subject would make for our real good, He would have given us that information. I do not think that it was the design of Almighty God in giving us His word, to make us wise as angels-to encourage us to pry into mysteries, which, after all, become the more mysterious the more they are pried into. The person who wants more information than the Bible gives him, is likely, in grasping after a shadow, to let go the substance-to puzzle his. head in the pursuit of what, if obtained, would do him no good, and to forget that knowledge which would tend to make him humble, holy, and happy.

Thirdly. Satan has more than one way of leading people to destruction. We find from the text, that many who read their Bibles, and are acquainted with their contents, perish. And it is to be observed, that the first great point with Satan is to hinder men from reading their Bibles, or thinking about their souls, at all; when he cannot do this, when people in spite of him will read and think, then he tries to make them misunderstand the Scriptures, and wrest them and pervert them; and